Paul Sloane presents mathematical lateral thinking puzzles, starting with the famous Gauss anecdote to show how clever thinking beats routine methods. The book, co-authored with Des McHale, works for students 11 and up, plus parents and teachers who want puzzles that reward creative problem-solving over standard approaches.
Chapters
The story is told that when the young mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss was at school, his teacher set a problem for the class in the hope that it would keep them quiet for quite a while. She said to the class, I want you to add up all the numbers between 1 and 100. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, all the way up to 100, and see what the grand total is. And the children set to work on this, and a couple of moments later, the young Gauss raised his hand. He'd solved the problem. And the way he solved it was to think, well, I can add 1 to 99 to make 100, 2 to 98, 3 to 97, 4 to 96, and so on. And if I do that, I'll have 50 lots of 100, and I'll have the 50 left over as well. So it comes to 5,050. And it's an example of lateral thinking in mathematics. And for many problems in mathematics, there is a routine solution. There is a standard solution, there is a good solid approach, and there's also a clever way, a cunning way, a lateral way to solve the problem. And that's what we explore in this book, which is called Mathematical Lateral Thinking Puzzles. And it consists of maths puzzles where there's a clever way to do it, a lateral way to solve the puzzle, a pleasing, fun way to solve the puzzle. And it's great for anyone that's really interested in mathematics and puzzles. If you've got a son or a daughter who's into mathematics, or you've got a class of students who you want to engage in this, or if you're just interested in mathematics for its own sake, this is a great book. I'm Paul Sloane. I studied engineering at Cambridge, and my co-author is Des McHale, who was a professor of mathematics at Cork University. And between us, we've written quite a number of lateral thinking puzzle books. And in this book, we focus on mathematical lateral thinking puzzles. So it's ideal for anyone aged about 11 or 12 upwards, I would say, who's interested in mathematics. I think it's a great book. I think you'll enjoy it. I think it'll keep young mathematicians engaged for hours.
